Discovery Centre

Western Australian Museum, Perth
Ground Floor, Hackett Hall Building (left from James St Main Entrance)

Museum staff interact with children at the Discovery Centre

Each department in the Western Australian Museum is represented in the Discovery Centre. Do you want to see dinosaur fossils, stone-age tools, meteorites, preserved vertebrates and invertebrates or perhaps some living frogs? The Discovery Centre has interactive displays and activities where young people and adults can get busy with their hands and minds. It is also the place to go to find answers to your scientific questions or to identify a biological specimen.

The Discovery Centre is about Exploration, Enquiry and Explanation.

The Museum has considerable information from its 110 years of research. The Discovery Centre specialises in helping to answer common scientific enquiries and is designed to provide easy access to the Museum’s collections.

Visitors are encouraged to discover for themselves the identity of artefacts and specimens they bring to the Museum, and to research further information about them.

The Discovery Centre assists visitors to develop research skills through access to the Museum's collections and information located in reference books.

If you have an enquiry about an artefact or specimen you can contact the Discovery Centre on (08) 9427 2836 or email discovery@museum.wa.gov.au

Education Services
The Discovery Centre provides programs that are integrated into the Student Outcomes Statements for Western Australia.

The Discovery Centre is open after school and on weekends, and provides an excellent venue for students undertaking school projects and assignments. Apart from the permanent displays, there is also the Library and a variety of science DVDs to assist with research.

During the school holidays special themed programs for children are run from the Centre. These involve craft activities, colouring-in and special tours.

Research
The Discovery Centre provides a variety of ways for visitors to research artefacts and specimens, and to gain knowledge into local history.

Many visitors bring items for identification, and visitors are able to use the reference collection and the library to learn about their objects.

The Discovery Centre Information Officer is happy to assist with your research and is able contact Museum Curators for difficult inquiries.

The Discovery Centre is about improving the knowledge of Western Australians through providing resources to assist them learn about Western Australia's natural science, and social and cultural history.

Contact Details
The Discovery Centre is open during normal Museum opening hours
(Open Daily: 9.30am - 5.00pm).

Perth Cultural Centre, James St
Perth, 6000
Western Australia

Phone: (08) 9427 2836
Fax: (08) 9427 2882

Email: discovery@museum.wa.gov.au